


S is for Sawyer

by romanticalgirl



Category: Hornblower (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-08
Updated: 2013-04-08
Packaged: 2017-12-07 21:01:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/753034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanticalgirl/pseuds/romanticalgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Originally posted 11-6-08</p>
    </blockquote>





	S is for Sawyer

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted 11-6-08

Archie knows the devil. He’s met him more than once, seen him in cutting blue eyes and sharp tongues, he’s seen the rabid jaws of inner demons glinting in the sun until he’s blind to anything but the hot breath of hell.

It’s even clearer now that Sawyer is well and truly mad, though Archie knows that madness is often uncaged truth, the lack of a need for pretty words, pretty lies. Perhaps Sawyer knows of Simpson or perhaps his choice of punishment is simply the Navy’s way, God and Country reduced down to a strap or a cane against a boy’s back. Either way, Sawyer sees too much of Archie as he sings fairy tales and lullabies of nightmares just as intense and unnerving as the unseeing wakefulness he’s thrust on Horatio.

Archie asks Sawyer one night as the old man – broken and no longer the hero of his own stories – sings and rhymes nonsense and wisdom. Archie whispers the words, ‘ are you the devil’, and Sawyer simply laughs until night falls and darkness steals something from them both.


End file.
